Passport Photos

I got a call yesterday morning and the fellow on the other end asked if I did passport photos. I laughed and told him that I had not shot a passport photo since I was a young pup photographer working for Don Barnett Photography in Fort Worth, Texas in the late 60's. I advised him to go to either the Post Office (one that does passports) or to a Kinko's or similar to get one taken.

This call did remind me of the old days before Polaroid and now digital cameras when we had to do it "old style". Back when I worked for Don in FW we shot passport photos on 4x5 Tri-X film on a large view camera. We took two exposures only. This required a single film holder which held 2 sheets of film, one on each side. The film was developed and dried. We picked the best of the two negatives (or the one with the eyes open) and printed two copies of the passport photo on black and white photographic paper which also had to be developed and dried and finally cut to the exact size required by the passport office.

Because of the odd size required by the passport office, none of our standard easels that held the photo paper under the enlarger were just right. So we had to jigger around a bit to get the two prints done. One day after having to fool around with all this many times I decided to make a little cardboard jig to make things go quicker and easier. Don noticed on that day that it was taking me a little longer than normal to get the two passport prints done. He stuck his head in the darkroom and queried "What the &*%# is taking you so long". I replied that I was making this little jig to make the job easier the next time. In response Don grumbled "If you just did it the way we always do it and quit wasting time on your little projects you would have it done by now." That was just how Don thought about things. However, the next time he had to print up some passport photos he came and thanked me for making it so much easier to do.